My Birthday!

I turned one on Saturday! Saturday, we all slept in, then I got up and played with Daddy for a while before Mummy came downstairs. Daddy was supposed to have a race, but they cancelled it because the wind was blowing so much. Daddy's friends that row in the same boat as him decided to have breakfast at Pembroke, so we got ready to meet them.

While we were getting ready to go, I tripped and hit Mummy's computer. I bit my lip! I cried because it hurt so much, and then Mummy tried to put a cold cloth on my lip. She told me it would help stop the bleeding and make it so it didn't swell up. Well guess what, that hurt, too!

Luckily, I'm really brave. I stopped crying after just a couple of minutes, got dressed, and we headed out for breakfast.

Daddy's friends are so fun! I got to have an orange juice and they all told me how cute I am. I get that a lot, but they were all really nice. After breakfast, we went and bought my friend Lydia a birthday present. Mummy and I went to her birthday party later on that afternoon. I had so much fun! Lydia invited a whole bunch of other friends and I got to play with some of her toys. My favorite part was sitting in Mummy's lap and watching Lydia open her presents. I was so excited to open my presents!

I only got to open one present on my actual birthday, because Mummy and Daddy planned a party for me on Sunday. We Skyped with Nana and I opened up the awesome vacuum that she and Papa got for me! I already love it so much. It makes so many fun noises, and I can push it around while Mummy pushes her vacuum around! Thanks Nana and Papa!

On my birthday, Mummy made me one of my favorite dinners (Chinese Sesame Chicken!). I also got to wear my hat and a special badge that says "I am 1!" That was pretty cool--I got to wear my hat again during my part.

Oh, and don't worry: my party was awesome.

Mummy and I got all the decorations in bright yellow and blue. We had balloons, party hats with polka dots, flowers, a banner, and a really cool sign that says: Happy Birthday! Daddy hung that up behind my high chair. I also had a special shirt that Nana bought me before we left Utah. It says "Look Who's 1!" (me, that's who!)

When my friends started arriving, I got so excited. Josh and Daly Brownlow, Aimee and Jonathan Smith, Kristen and Michael Call and their two kids (Alana and Devin--they were my favorites!), and Dr. Peter Martland all came to celebrate with me. Mummy made cupcakes and we had lots of yummy fruit. Everybody wore their party hats (even Peter!) and I had so much fun. I played blocks with Alana and Devin, showed them my new vacuum, and got to show off my favorite blanket.

But my party wasn't 100% fun.

Mummy made me a really cool cake--a blue one with a blue #1 on top! She put a really pretty candle right on top for me to blow out. But right after I blew it out, I reached up to touch the candle and--ouch! It's hot! It wasn't too bad, but then when everybody started making noise I got so scared! Mummy picked me up and held me and showed me a balloon, and everything was ok after that.

A few minutes later, she took me back so I could try eating my cake again. I got my favorite fork and everything! I really wasn't too sure about the frosting, and when I got some in my eye I decided I REALLY didn't like it.

Cake is so much better when somebody feeds it to you! I'm glad my friend Aimee helped me eat a cupcake. That was much better than having to eat that big cake all by myself.

Even though my cake was kind of scary, my party was a lot of fun. I got so many presents! Aimee and Jonathan got me a cool new shirt and some snazzy shoes. Daly and Josh got me a VERY soft cow with a little blankie. Peter gave me my very first 20 pound note! Mummy found me a really cool scarf with a London Bus on it. I can't wait to wear it! Oh, and Mummy and Daddy got me this AMAZING train set. It has some of the famous London Buildings and the train looks just like the Tube train! It also came with a London Bus, a Cab, a Police Car (which is my favorite), and a fire engine. Daddy and I have already played with it a few times. It's so much fun!

I also got a very special present from the Missionaries. Elder Dickey and Elder Tan brought me a Book of Mormon! Mummy tells me Book of Mormon stories all the time, I'm so excited to have my own book. It has pictures in it, too!

So overall, my birthday was awesome. It was fun having my friends over at my house. Thank you for coming to my party, friends!

Peter and Me. :)

Family!!

Figuring out Spoons

Sometimes I get really frustrated with Mummy when it's time to eat. I  want to do it! So, she's started letting me try it out!

A few days ago, Mummy let me try eating Mac & Cheese all by myself! I know that a lot of it ended up all over my jammies and on the floor, but it was sure a lot of fun!

Mummy said to say this is one of her favorite pictures now. 

Our Christmas Break Trip part 1: Travel, Hotel, Hay-on-Wye, & Hereford

After Boxing Day, Mummy, Daddy, and I rented a car and headed west. We visited parts of Wales and the towns along the border in England. It was a lot of fun!

In England, I'm already old enough to sit in a car seat that faces forward! I liked that a lot. I actually slept pretty well in it, though Mummy kept worrying that I would get a sore neck. She tried to help by snuggling the blanket up under my chin, which helped a little. At first, it was really weird that Daddy was driving on the other side of the car, but Mummy and I got used to it. He did such a good job!

 We got stuck in a lot of traffic on the way to Goodrich. So when we arrived, it was already dark. But that's ok--I was ready to be out of my car seat and play in our hotel! We stayed in "Ye Hostelrie" in Goodrich, just 400 meters from a really old castle! We had a really cool window in our room that Daddy really liked. They had a cot for me (we call it a crib in America) and housekeeping even made it for me every day! I thought that was really nice. There were a few ladies that are Mummy's age who ran the hotel. They made us breakfast every day, made our beds, and got us our dinner every night. I thought one of them, named Emily was really pretty...

We ate in the bar every day while we were there. We had English Breakfast in the morning. Eggs, toast, beans, bacon, tomatoes, and even a big mushroom! My favorite part was the eggs and the orange juice. For dinner every night, Mummy ordered chips to share. I LOVE chips! And I love ketchup, too.

Our first full day on holiday, we went and visited Hay-on-Wye, a town in Wales. Hay-on-Wye is a village on the border of England and Wales. They have the world's largest (and oldest) used bookstore! Of course when Mummy read about it she knew she had to visit. in 1961, a man named Richard Booth started buying books from all over the world an sending them home to his sister. Once they had a lot of books, they opened up their very first shop! Mummy bought a book at his shop--it's an hold book of English Carols.

Mummy and Daddy both really liked Hay-on-Wye. It had lots of windy streets, with a really cool clock tower, grocers, and antiques. Another fun thing, is that lots of the signs have both English and Welsh words!

There are 60 bookshops in Hay-on-Wye! Mummy and Daddy were in heaven! 

Mummy enjoyed taking pictures of me with her new camera. 

I really liked Hay-on-Wye, too! Mummy and Daddy said that maybe one day we should open up our own bookshop there. I could go for that!

After we went to Hay-on-Wye, we traveled to Hereford to see the cathedral. It was all decorated for Christmas still--which I really liked. It's a pretty old cathedral, and they still use the same heating system they used in the 1800s! Huge boilers on the either side of the nave (Daddy said that is the big open room in the cathedral) that get really hot. Mummy and I stood next to one and got warm.

The town of Hereford is really pretty, too. We wandered around the shops, looked at the river, and saw a REALLY old building--from the time of Shakespeare! By then, I was getting really tired and just wanted to go back to the hotel and get some chips for dinner, so we got packed up and headed to Goodrich.

Daddy's Party

Last night we went to a party!! All of the people in Daddy's program got together to have a party. There was food, music, lots of people, and...lots of drinks. At first I was really nervous and wouldn't let Mummy or Daddy put me down. But eventually, I realized that all the people there really liked me--that's why they got right up close and said "AWWW!!!"--Mummy said that is actually a compliment.

There were so many drinks at the party. Everyone kept offering me drinks, but Mummy said "No thank you" to lots of them. That was ok, because Daddy went and got me some Sprite! I love Sprite!***

I wore my Santa hat and while we were there, somebody put a Santa hat on Daddy! We were twins!

We stayed long enough to get Christmas Crackers (which are cool, but really loud) and exchange our White Elephant gift. A month ago, Daddy sent in 2 sentences about our family without giving away his name. Then, we got a note about our person and had to get something for them. When we opened our present, I was so excited--whoever had our name got me the perfect gift: a stocking!!

Overall, it was a very fun party. But I was definitely ready to go home and go to bed--I'm glad we didn't stay as long as everybody else!

***Mummy's Note: Yes, people actually did try and give our baby wine! Red wine and white wine. They didn't seem to believe me when I said no thanks. One girl even got the cup all the way up to his lips before I could stop her, good thing that was during Little Brute's "not so sure" time and he turned his head away. Seriously!

My Christmas Tree!!

We put up our Christmas tree today! The tree stand came in the mail today, three days before Amazon said it was going to come (by the way, I don't know who this Amazon is, but he sure sends some amazing stuff! Mummy gets a delivery almost every week from Amazon, and it's always really exciting. Thanks Amazon!).

Daddy used his Leatherman to cut the bottom of the tree off. Mummy said she was glad we had a small tree--if it had been as big as she wanted (20 feet I think she said), then it would have taken Daddy much longer.

While I was sleeping, Mummy and Daddy brought it inside and cut the net off. Isn't it beautiful! Mummy thought it was so beautiful that she gave it a hug. Right after I woke up, she let me touch it. I wasn't so sure, but I think that was more because I was SO tired!

 That night, Daddy put the lights on it, and then we got to hang up all the pretty decorations! Mummy found beautiful red beads to hang on it, and Daddy picked out a set of gold baubles (that's what they call ornaments here, at least the ball ones. I love that word! Bauble...bauble...bauble bauble bauble!) and a beautiful gold star! Mummy also wanted some glittery red snowflakes--Daddy lets her get whatever she wants, so we have nine of them.

We have a couple of special ornaments on the tree, too. Mummy says the most important one is mine. It looks just like the baby rattles they had a long time ago. It's silver, and on one side it says "Baby's First Christmas 2013." On the other side, it says "Get ready to have your world rattled." What do you think that means?

The other special ornaments are the one I made (it has my hand print on it), a little hedgehog made out of sticks that Mummy got at the Botanic Gardens, a Postbox with an English Robin on top, and then a really cool Owl Bauble. That's Daddy's favorite.




To be honest, my favorite part was definitely helping Daddy put the tree topper on. I'm so glad he let me help!

It is definitely my favorite part of Christmas so far! Every day I come downstairs and get to see my beautiful Christmas tree. Thanks Mummy and Daddy for getting it for me!

Afraid

I'm usually very brave. It takes a lot to get me scared. Daddy holds me upside down, Mummy jumps out from behind a pillow and shouts boo--I laugh in the face of danger. Ha ha ha ha!

 But Mum and Daddy found something really scary at the grocery store.

After a little while, I was ok with touching the bag myself. Mummy held me and let me touch it, and then Daddy sat down with me and let me bang on the bag. That helped a lot! But I still don't like it when they pick it up and it makes that really creepy crinkly noise!